Huntsville gazette., 1887-02-05
HIDE-AND-SEEK.
An Arqbseologist's Game With an
Old Jaguar.

"Oh, so you want me tell you one Of
my travelling adventures, says Prof,
Stone, as we all gather round him on
the saloon deck after dinner. "WeIl,
don't know that there's much in the
life of hum-drum fellow like me to
interest you dashing young gentlemen,
who think that a man should be ALWAYS
shooting tigers, or storming batteries
OF exploring deserts, or swimming
ashore from a sinking ship with note
book in his teeth, like Julius Cesar
in the harbor Of Alexandria. However,
I've had one experience that had a
pretty strong spice of the adventurous
rather more so, indeed, than quite
liked at the time-and it happened
when | was hunting up antiquities in
South America, twenty years ago. l
don't know whether any of you have
ever been up the Parana. It's very
nice river in it's way, if it weren't for
the jaguars and the snakes, and the
mosquitoes and the yellow fever, and
the big ants that bite right through
thick stocking, and q few other things
of that sort. Perhaps one wouldn't ex-
actly have picked it out as the best
place for a summer vacation; but it was
just what wanted, for L found more
out-of-the-way remains there than in
all the rest of the country put together.
From morning till night 1 was hard at
work unearthing tombs, and gateways,
and antique weapons, and what not,
until | was as happy as the day was
short-for can assure you l found it
much too short for all had to do.
'Paraguay's not the safest place in
the world for a foreigner, it must be
owned. If you happen to wear red
shirt or colored scarf in the towns,
somebody will most likely take it for
political badge, and empty his pistol at
you forthwith; while, if you go too far
into the bush, you get picked up by the
Indians, who generally make short
work of you. indeed, However, got
off better than I expected; for all this
poking and roofing of mine among
these old stones that nobody else cared
for made them think first that was
mad (Which was lucky, for they never
touch madman), and then that was
magician-which was luckier still,
for then they were afraid of me and let
me do what l liked. l suspect, how
ever, that my reputation for magic
arose chiefly from the tales of my half
caste servant, Pedro Diaz, who. al
though a right good fellow in his way,
was terribly given to romancing, and
used to tell such stories as would have
put Baron Munchausen himself out of
cOuntenance.
But though the natives didn't mo-
lest me, had my share Of troubles for
all that Sometimes l would find
rival antiquary in the field before me,
in the shape Of big serpent coiled
round the very stone was going to ex-
amine-and, of course, couldn't be so
rude as to press my claim after that.
Then, again, more than once, just as
was at my busiest, the earth gave way
under my feet, and found myself chin
deep in hole, with hundreds of big
black ants pitching into me in every di-
rection. These ants, indeed, are the
pest Of Paraguay; and it's fact,
though you mayn't believe it, that you
sometimes see the whole village tumble
down at once from the undermining of
the ground by the ants nests.
''Well, one morning got up before
sunrise (as you soon learn to do. l
promise you, IN a climate where one
hundred and one degrees in the shade
is quite fair average temperature),
and away I started into the forest rs
usual, to see what could see. Having
my pocket-compass always with me,
wasn't bit afraid of getting lost; and
on / went, keeping sharp lookout to
right and left for any thing in the
shape of an 'antique'-till, all at once,
I came upon spot which was not only
quite new to me. but unlike any thing
Ihad ever seen before.
ga buried city! thought l; and
down / jumped, without even stopping
to think how l was to get up again.
Sure enough, l found myself among
the ruins of great building OF some
kind, vaster and grander tnan l had
seen yet, and bearing every mark OF
extreme age. Some of the fragments
were SO overgrown with creepers, that
] could hardly distinguish them; but